Mascalzone Latino Audi Team at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Dubai

by . on 17 Nov 2010 Mascalzone Latino Audi update from the third day of Louis Vuitton Trophy Dubai.

Lady luck was not there for the Mascalzone Latino Audi but, as the night approached the situation was clearly getting better. They achieved victory over Synergy and first point on the table.

This is how things went today. The waters off Dubai proved to be a tricky race area as the breeze, once again, came late. Mascalzone Latino Audi Team had two negative races, due to a series of tactical and crew work errors, against the French-German team All4One. Finally, in the third race the efforts put by Vincenzo Onorato’s team were rewarded. The 'Latin Rascals' were able to score their first point on the leaderboard (in fact, the team has won two races but due to the penalty imposed by the Jury last Sunday Mascalzone only has one point).

The first of the two races against the German-French alliance ALL4One started on a wrong foot: Early over the line. This fact compromised the entire race as the team led by Gavin Brady had to turn around and cross again the line, losing precious meters and seconds. It was a vain fight to bridge the gap with an opponent that still hadn’t shown its value but didn’t either let the opportunity slip by. ALL4One sailed without committing any errors and crossed the finish line ahead.

The return match, where Mascalzone was again facing ALL4One, a rare event comes into play. Gavin Brady (NZL) crosses the start line spot on time while ALL4One are clearly early over the line and sails off without any pressure from their opponent.

In the seconds that follow the start, a real mess takes place with the flags on the committee boat and Peter 'Luigi' Reggio, the Principal Race Office, asks the teams to forgive him and cancels the race.

The two boats start again and all goes well for Mascalzone. The 'Latin Rascals' build a comfortable lead but an erroneous gybe in the first run wipes it out and forces the Italians to fall behind Jochen Schümann (GER).

Finally, as the sun was about to set, the turnaround took place. In the third flight of the day for the team led by Gavin Brady (NZL), all went well in the match against Synergy that was rescheduled from yesterday. Mascalzone has a good start, while Synergy, helmed by Francesco Bruni from Palermo, crosses the line early and must come back to cross again.

As a result, the 'Latin Rascals' have the lead from the onset but the race is anything but a walk in the park, especially in the first run where many lead changes took place. Still, Mascalzone rounded the last top mark ahead and sailed to victory, with much less stress.

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